Developing new SEND provision
We want to increase the number of spaces for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the borough, making sure that we offer the right school, to the right child, in the right place, and at the right time.
What are we proposing?
As many in the borough’s SEND community are already aware, we don’t currently have enough specialist education places to meet the needs of our children and young people with SEND.
Our SEND Strategy 2021-24 identified key gaps in what we have available locally, which has led to an over-reliance on independent specialist schools.
This results in many pupils being forced to travel considerable distances to get to their special schools—a third of pupils with education, health and care (EHC) plans are required to travel out of borough. This generally isn’t good for anyone as it makes it harder for pupils to participate in before and after school activities, means they spend more time travelling to and from school, and that they live further away from their classmates.
EHC plans describe a child or young person's special educational needs, the support they need, and the outcomes they would like to achieve. Most children and young people with EHC plans are eligible for support funded by the High Needs Block.
Independent specialist schools often do not provide good value for money and can lead to significant overspends in what we spend on our children and young people with more complex needs (called the ‘High Needs Block’).
The vision for SEND provision in Wokingham Borough is to create a range of special educational settings, so we have different settings available for children and young people with different SEND needs.
Education helps children and young people with SEND thrive. Most children and young people will have their needs met within mainstream schools or colleges, with additional support where necessary.
A small number of children and young people with more complex needs, which cannot be met by support in a mainstream school, will need a more specialist curriculum to support their needs and require a more specialist setting.
We will have a variety of specialist settings (such as special schools and units attached to mainstream schools) that will provide different levels of support to meet the pupils' needs with specialist staff, equipment and teaching.
The support offered will evolve and each year we will review the needs of our SEND pupils and adapt our offer to meet their needs.
We are putting into place a range of improvements and we want your views on our plans.
The Department for Education (DfE) recently awarded us two grants: one to build two new SEND schools in the borough and the other to improve and expand our SEND educational support services.
We have developed a number of proposals to address the gaps in our current SEND support and provide us with enough of the right sort of spaces, in the right places.
We want to know what you think of our proposals to help us make the right decisions about what type of specialist educational places are needed now and in the future, and how many of each sort of place.
We want to ensure there is widespread support for our proposals and that we have prioritised the right categories of support for development.
What new SEND provision is already under development?
We have two new places in the borough that will open in the coming months:
- Oak Tree Special School has been developed in partnership with Reading Borough Council and will open in September 2023. The school will ultimately provide 150 places for pupils aged 4 to 19 with Autism Spectrum Disorder, but will take a number of years to reach full capacity.
- Addington Special School, which provides places for pupils with a range of cognitive disabilities, is developing a satellite at the former Farley Hill village school which will provide 40 additional places for pupils in early years and reception. This site is scheduled to open with 14 pupils in Autumn 2023 and will build to full capacity over the following year or two.
What additional new provisions are we proposing?
We propose to create range of educational options to support our children and young people with SEND, meaning that they are in a school setting that best meets their individual needs.
Currently, the options for children with SEND are:
- A 'resource base', attached to a mainstream school where children spend around 50 per cent of their time in the school and 50 per cent getting specialist support in the resource base
- A 'specialist school' for those that need the highest level of support in a fully adapted environment
Under new proposals, resource bases would be re-designed to better meet current needs, new special schools would be opened and new SEND 'designated units' would be introduced for those pupils who need a higher level of support than a resource base but would benefit from time in a mainstream school.
Proposed changes
To deliver the SEND continuum of support we propose:
- Re-purposing our existing resource bases to better meet the demand and needs identified in the needs analysis, phasing out any provision that is no longer required
- Creating a new type of provision, the SEND designated units, which seek to close the gap between resource bases and special schools
- Implementing robust accountability, monitoring and review mechanisms.
This will include the development of:
- One new primary school resource base for children with ASD or social communication difficulties
- One new primary school SEND designated unit for children with ASD or social communication difficulties
- One new secondary SEND designated unit for children with ASD or social communication difficulties
Post 16 education for pupils with EHC plans
Analysis has shown that there are gaps in our educational offer for pupils with EHC plans as they approach adulthood in the 16 to 25 year old age range.
Wokingham Borough has applied for additional capital funding from the Department of Education. If this application is successful, we are proposing to develop the following provision:
- Post 16 proposal 1: We are proposing a new build, bespoke post 16 Centre of SEND Excellence for 20 students with ASD, Asperger’s and SEMH. Individual learning pathways will create opportunities for students to experience real life, socially and culturally along with academic studies to improve employability. In addition, basic life skills will form a part in this preparation (such as personal finance, independent travel, and social activity) through an individualised programme, that can change to suit the student as they develop and will include supported internships and specific industry standard training and skills.
- Post 16 proposal 2: We are proposing an offsite, satellite to proposal 1 above offering a post 16 SEND Training and Skills Centre on a trading / industrial estate to model real work in real time in an appropriate working environment improve routes into employment and independent adult life for 25 students with ASD, Asperger’s and SEMH.
We want to know what you think of these plans
We are consulting all service users and partners, including parents, carers and young people with SEND to give us their views on the principles and the options.
We need to grow the number of places available in the borough quickly. The demand for specialist places is already greater than the supply available and our information tells us that this will become a bigger problem in the coming years.
We believe this increased range of provision will help us to provide better lives for children and young people with SEND in the future as well as enabling the local education system to achieve a balanced High Needs Block budget by 2028-29.
If you know someone who'd like to respond but can't access this online survey, they can call us on (0118) 974 6000 or pop into one of our libraries for help.